Well operators commonly need to understand downhole water chemistry to help them decide production strategies and determine corrosion rates, scale formation rates, formation geochemistry etc.
More specifically, the pH and qualitative/quantitative analysis of the presence of specific ions in downhole water are often required.
Conventionally, water chemistry measurements are performed in the laboratory on fluid samples retrieved from below ground. However, water chemistry is not often preservable over the temperature and pressure changes typically induced by transportation from subterranean locations to the surface, and so a chemistry measurement of a sample collected for laboratory analysis will not always provide a result that can be related to the downhole value. Consequently, the water chemistry measured in the laboratory may vary significantly from that existing downhole.